


It's Not You; It's Literally All Me

by AlwaysEroticWrestling



Category: All Elite Wrestling, Being The Elite (Web Series)
Genre: Other, brandi is the real babe., i love cody rhodes but also, obligatory spooky times, stardust tho, wwe mentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 05:28:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21248204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlwaysEroticWrestling/pseuds/AlwaysEroticWrestling
Summary: Cody Rhodes is having some interesting experiences after his exorcism.





	1. Remnants

**Author's Note:**

> This is set post The Exorcism episode of BTE. It's a fun time and shamelessly self-indulgent. I had an idea. What can I say?  
-Mod Captain Dick

Cody was not the kind of man to be humbled, frightened, or terrorized in any way very often. He prided himself on his nerves of steel and his unshakable attitude towards everything. As far as the American Nightmare was concerned, he was as unflappable a figure as they come. Perfect for running a business. Perfect for being at the top of the food-chain. Recently, however, Cody had found that very firm ground he usually stood on was maybe not so stable after all. It’d started with the Money Shakes. 

That particular part of what would become known as the Exorcism of Cody, was thankfully over. Cody briefly remembered his good friend C.D. after everything, dressed, oddly, like a priest. They were both shaken and for a while, Cody couldn’t meet his eyes. Things were said. Cody had trouble remembering, of course, but he knew things had been said. There was that distinctive taste in his mouth. The kind that reminded him of bile and sent him back several years to The Other Place. Back when he was still allowed to be Cody Rhodes and not just Cody. Every time he thought about it, a little unpleasant shiver slipped down his throat and ran all the way down his spine until he was covered in goosebumps and scowling. 

The taste had yet to leave. It lingered a lot longer than Cody had wanted it to. After the hotel room incident, Cody couldn’t help but feel like maybe he was a little more vulnerable than he’d wanted to be. 

Honestly, though, the real fear and uncertainty didn’t set in for a while. One evening, Cody was removing his suit jacket to hang it up in the hotel closet. A ritual of his was to clean out the pockets. Because who knew what could be there and every time he didn’t at least check to make sure he wasn’t leaving anything behind, he’d lost something important. Usually he didn’t have to pull anything out. His nightstand was usually already home to Cody’s phone and his fancy watch. This night, however, in the low-light of hotel bedside lamps, Cody’s fingers glittered oddly as he pulled them free from his pockets. 

And not just any kind of glittering. 

He blinked a few times, brow furrowed, and that recently too familiar feeling of fear crept up along his spine to settle uncomfortably warmly on his shoulders. He rubbed his fingers together for a moment, shoulders hunching, and glanced over towards the bed where Brandi was already waiting for him. His lips twitched, like he was considering saying something, only he didn’t. He rubbed his hands on his sleep pants, hoping the movement would toss the glitter to the floor to be forgotten about and shoved his jacket a little less gently into the closet. 

“You comin’?” 

“Yeah… Yeah gimme a second.” And as Cody slipped into bed, he pressed a kiss to Brandi’s cheek, feeling that fear slink back just a little. And maybe, he thought, maybe I’ll be okay. That night, Cody slept. He slept hard, and long and when he woke up his body hurt all over, but he’d forgotten about the glitter. 

As if that would be the end of things. Really, he should have known better.

Ever since the exorcism, Cody’s felt… Weird. Not enough to make a big deal of anything, but he’d felt… Different. And maybe if they hadn’t had the exorcism, and maybe if the strange things happening to him weren’t so oddly specific, he could have just brushed it off. But they did. And things were very specific. And Cody was having a really tough time just pretending like things weren’t happening to him.  
Cody enlisted help where he thought he could be the most discreet. The problem is, he didn’t really want to blow things out of proportion before he knew what was going on and if it was freak out worthy. Google wasn’t as helpful as he wanted it to be. Cody was hunched over the laptop, chin in one hand, the other scrolling on the almost comically small track-pad as he skimmed over the article. He wished it’d just been the glitter in his pocket. But of course it hadn’t been. It’d been glitter in his pockets, his phone jack, he found it in his breakfast on more than one occasion. Cody had even found glitter in his shampoo. Not once, but twice. 

That aside, he wouldn’t have thought that would be something to be worried about. Especially since, given the last incident, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was a harmless rib. Only he knew it wasn’t because Cody had been hearing things at night. The Jackson’s might be shitheads, but Cody was pretty damn sure that they weren’t sneaking into his room at night and whispering things that only he could hear about The Other Place, and telling him that the money was too good to walk away from, and couldn’t they see what it’d done for his career? Even Brandi had started to notice how jumpy he was getting and how he didn’t really sleep anymore, even if he was in the bed with her. Pharaoh stuck close to his legs like he could sense that Cody was uncomfortable in his own skin, somehow. 

Everything he was finding on the internet about his current situation wasn’t helpful, or hopeful. He was going to close the damn laptop and bundle up in bed and hope that maybe all of this would blow over eventually if he kept trying to ignore it. His hand came up, settled on the top of the screen. And right as he was starting to close it, he heard a voice in his ear. It was so close he could feel the warm breath on his ear. 

“You can’t ever get rid of me, Cody! I’m you!” 

Cody yelped and leaped off the bed as the spandexed, glittering and glowing warm body who’d snuck up, somehow, moved back to make room for him. Gloved hands found Cody’s waist, moving to wind around him. Stardust was done playing around. Cody felt like if he just held very still, maybe this particular hallucination would just disappear like all the rest of them. Especially since all he could see was the arms around his waist because Stardust had wisely not moved into his field of vision. Cody wondered briefly if this hallucination of who he used to be was specifically fucking with him this way because he knew it’d be easier to dismiss it if he never got a full look at the man. 

Stardust, in all his painted glory, rubbed a star-studded cheek against Cody’s right shoulder blade, giving his counterpart a firm, warm, squeeze before he pulled back and disappeared into thin air with a maniacal laugh, leaving only smeared silver face paint on Cody’s shirt as evidence of him having been there at all. The hotel room door opened, Cody remained frozen where he was, breathing heavy. All of him felt very very cold and he was patting around his middle like he was trying to find those arms that felt solid and real around him. But they were gone with the rest of this particular ghost. 

Brandi raised a beautifully manicured eyebrow in his direction and cocked her head to the side just a little. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost…” 

Cody turned big, blue, sad eyes onto his wife and let out a little bit of a whimper before ambling over to wind his big arms around Brandi. It felt very much like The Other Place was targeting him and Cody refused to be dragged back into what could only be described as a hellhole. A hole of hell, which paid him poorly and trampled all over everything he ever wanted to do in the business that he loved with every fiber of his being. Brandi, looking extremely surprised and concerned, wound her arms around him and rubbed at his shoulders in an attempt to offer him some small measure of comfort that she felt like he badly needed. 

It was no surprise that he didn’t get any sleep that night. Brandi tried her best to stay awake with him, but they’d both had very long days, and Brandi deserved her sleep. She’d more than earned it. They sat up together. Brandi drooled on his shoulder. Cody admired her while she slept. And they stayed like that until the sun started to tickle the horizon a little, tinting the sky with shades of orange and pink. 

Brandi had asked. Cody didn’t know if he had the words to describe what was going on in a way that didn’t make it sound… Stupid. Blown out of proportion. Imagined. Any number of adjectives to make what he’d experienced feel less real, somehow. So he just shrugged and offered a sheepish smile and asked her to leave the light on because he really didn’t want to think about how closer Stardust had been to him. Brandi hadn’t mentioned the face paint on his shirt. Maybe she didn’t see it. Cody hoped that she had and just decided that he might not be ready to talk about it yet. She was good that way. 

The morning that followed this particular encounter was quiet, and a little bit awkward. Cody didn’t say much. He didn’t say anything when he took his shower and watched a frankly absurd amount glitter twist prettily down the drain. When before he hadn’t been sure if it was what he thought it was, who he thought it was, Cody could feel Stardust’s presence. It lingered over his shoulder and sprinkled glitter on everything. It was a suffocating feeling, pressing in on him from all sides. Cody thought he might be going crazy, but it smelled like glitter too. Cody was quiet when he got dressed, ignoring the shininess of his tie. 

\---

“It sounds like a residual haunting, man.” 

“That sounds stupid.” 

“I’m just telling you what I’m seeing. Which is nothing, by the way.” 

“You don’t think I’m crazy?” 

“I mean… Theoretically… Sometimes during an exorcism things get left behind, so. Theoretically… That’s what I would assume. I’ve never uh… Dealt with ghosts or demons or anything like that personally.” Chuckie rubbed the back of his neck almost sheepishly. “But… I mean. From what you’re telling me…” 

Cody sighed and rubbed at his eyes, and the bridge of his nose. “You have to swear you’re not going to tell anyone else what I just told you.” 

“Not even Trent?” 

“Not even Trent?.” 

Chuckie T. made a noise like he was going to protest, but instead slumped against the chair and folded his arms over his chest. Cody had a feeling that even though he was making him promise, Trent? was probably going to find out anyway. Because Cody had a feeling that Chuckie had a problem with keeping secrets from Trent?. As in he didn’t. Which meant that it could very quickly be common knowledge that Cody had issues with ghosts. 

And not just any ghost either. Cody’s least favorite ghost. The worst ghost he could conjure up. He honestly still needed convincing that it was an actual ghost. Mostly because the absurdity of the whole damn thing was as heavy as the lingering taste of glitter and dirt and mistreatment that hung onto his tongue and pressed onto his shoulders. 

“I’m serious. Don’t fucking tell Trent?.” Chuckie sighed but nodded again and Cody felt like his work here was done. At least for now. He rose carefully, shaking out his suit as he did so. “I owe you a favor down the road. Don’t get too crazy.” And as long as Chuckie T. doesn’t break that promise, Cody will absolutely give him the favor he’s owed. Then again, Cody’s pretty sure Chuckie T. is going to tell Trent? anyway and so he won’t have to make good on that favor anyway. Hopefully Trent? is better at keeping his mouth shut. 

\---

Things quieted down for a little while. For three days Cody found less glitter, and didn’t really feel the suffocating pressure of Stardust at his back, nipping at his heels. Or at least, not as much. His conversation with The Best Friends led him to believe that maybe this whole thing would go away on its own. And Cody really wanted to believe that. And maybe that was really what was making it feel like things were finally settling down. Or maybe that was just what this particular ghost of a ghost wanted Cody to think. To lure him into a false sense of security. 

The worst thing was that it worked. 

Cody was lulled. And he got comfortable. 

Which was exactly why he actually screamed when Stardust’s overly eager expression stared back at him from the silver side of the mirror in the bathroom. Cody had been washing his face and minding his own damn business. And when he looked up, there he was. Cody backed up all the way, involuntarily until he was pressed against the opposite wall. Horror was no doubt visible in his face, only Cody couldn’t tell because the face in the mirror wasn’t his. It was his. Just not his his. 

“Hey Cody! Didja miss me?!”


	2. The Haunting of Cody Rhodes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cody comes to grips with elements of his past and the inevitability of their lingering presence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just to tie up some loose ends. After it was already written the rest of the mods gave me even better ideas on how to tell this story, but it was already written and I feel like it went okay anyway. I do love a good spookums. 
> 
> -Mod Captain Dick

“Hey Cody! Didja miss me?!”

Cody’s fingers were chilly against the wall behind him. His mind scrambled frantically to come up with some logical reason for this to be happening. Stardust was there. He just was. A little younger. A little more vulnerable. And staring at him from the other side of the mirror. Cody remembered, briefly, a time where he once was sitting in the bath with a nice cigar and he’d wondered what was on the other side of a mirror. Aside from the actual reflective mechanism, of course. He’d never thought it’d be like this. His heart thundered in his ears and he glanced towards the door, still firmly closed.

“No way out, Cooooody~ You just have to deal with me~” 

For the first time in a long time, Cody Rhodes felt vulnerable. And trapped. From behind the mirror, Stardust cackled. Cody cringed. Glitter fell from the ceiling, coating everything in a fine layer of shining particles. Cody felt like it coated his lungs too. It was hard to breathe. He swallowed hard, dry throat scratching up even more with the effort.

“Just me and you, Cody! Just like old times! Just me. Just you! It’s all you! Look at you! This isn’t you, Cody! Cooooooody~ Let me out, Cody. Come on, Cody. You know he wants you back~ We could have anything we want Coooooody~ All you have to do…. Is kiss me, Cody! You can do that, can’t you, Cody?” 

It was freezing in the bathroom. Cody wasn’t sure why, but it felt like someone had left the window open in the dead of winter. And despite all of that, the cool, suffocating air, Cody was still sweating through his button down. Stardust was taunting him, moving in the mirror like he was going to try to crawl out and take him up in his arms. That was the last thing Cody wanted. He shuddered against the shower wall, refusing to step any closer. 

Stardust gasped, a wounded, dramatic thing as he reared back in the mirror to mimic Cody’s current position, a gloved hand clutching at his chest in mock horror. “Do you hate me, Cody? We had some good times, didn’t we? We had fun, Cody! Don’t you remember the fun?” 

For the first time since this entire encounter began, Cody responded. It wasn’t verbal, but it was still a response. He shook his head. No. He didn’t remember the fun. He remembered… Well. Not fun. His lips twitched. Stardust threw his head back and wailed at the ceiling. 

“Cody! You’ll get your name back, Cody! Come on Cody, please? Don’t you miss me?” 

The urge to whimper was almost overwhelming. But the American Nightmare held on. This, he thought bitterly to himself, was the true nightmare. Stardust was a nightmare. Everything he brought with him was a nightmare. This disco bathroom was a nightmare. The glitter in his nose was a nightmare. Being haunted by someone you thought you killed was a nightmare. Cody shuddered. 

“No. Get the fuck outta here! I didn’t ask for you to come back. I don’t want you here.” Finding his voice was difficult, but it didn’t shake when he spoke and honestly, Cody was pretty damn proud of that. Finally he was peeling himself free from the back wall. The bathroom was small enough that it only took Cody two steps to actually make his way back to the sink. Fear had diminished to little more than a dull thrum at the back of his head, replaced instead with a fiery hot rage that swelled up from his lungs. With fury bright in his eyes, Cody gripped either side of the sink as he pushed right into what would be Stardust’s space. If he wasn’t in a mirror, they’d be nose to nose. Instead, Cody’s nose squished against the glass until his forehead joined it. 

Stardust matched his movements. A particularly cold bead of sweat trickled down Cody’s spine. He clenched his jaw. Stardust’s eyes were bright and excited. This was exactly what he’d wanted. Cody could feel his breath on him despite the glass separating them. 

“You’ll never get rid of me, Cody. Not completely. I’m you. You’re me. I’m in you. I always will be. You can’t deny this part of you, Coooody. Come on~ Just accept it already. You’re always going to have a little piece of me, inside of you. Say it! Say it, Cody! Say you’ll always have me!” 

“You’re a little bitch.”

“Such language!” Stardust looked almost affronted, except for that delighted little gleam in his eyes.

“Shut the hell up.” Cody ground it out angrily, one hand coming up to jab at the mirror. The gesture was accusing. The tip of Cody’s finger turned white with the force of the jab. For a moment Cody considered how badass it would be to punch Stardust squarely in the face where he deserved and walk out with a broken mirror and a cut up hand. On the other hand he thought that might be letting that sorry son of a bitch, masquerading as a ghost, have exactly what he wanted. “I got nothin’ to say to you except thanks. Settle the hell down. I don’t have time for this shit, asshole. We’re doing better now. A lot better. Leaving you behind was the best damn thing that I ever did.” 

And the way things were moving presently only supported that particular statement. Stardust laughed again, a mocking, annoying thing that had Cody cringing. Stardust reared back, Cody pulled back to see what he was doing, just in time to receive a face full of glitter. Before he could protest, before he could even spit the glitter that’d gotten into his mouth out, Stardust was gone and Cody was alone in the bathroom again feeling like nothing had been accomplished. Brandi tactfully said nothing when Cody emerged from the bathroom covered head to toe in glitter. He raised a hand helplessly before his shoulders slumped again and he moved to pick out a change of clothes. But if Brandi was smiling to herself, Cody never had to know. If he’s working through something, she figured she should probably just let him. Let it run its course. And if he decided to wear glitter and face paint, she wasn’t going to judge him. 

Things didn’t quiet down. Cody was up all night shaking glitter from his hair and muttering to himself in the bathroom. Brandi listened as best as she could, concerned that maybe she’d need to call C.D. back for another exorcism because it was starting to look like maybe the first one didn’t stick as well as they’d wanted it to. Cody wondered how long this particular brand of what felt like torture was going to last. Hadn’t he left all that behind? This shouldn’t be a problem anymore. And yet. Here he was. Sometimes his eyes weren’t blue when he looked in the mirror. Sometimes they were red. And that was just as frightening as the imagined sensation of gloved fingers winding around his throat, or the hot breath on his ear whispering all about how Cody should just go back to the fold. Stardust would take care of both of them like he hadn’t when they were there before. 

Cody emerged from the bathroom and he felt like his shadow had a real, corporeal weight to it. How could something that was nothing have a weight do it? Only, he knew how. Because he felt like Stardust was hiding in it. The bags under his eyes weren’t pretty. Brandi urged him to take the day off. Normally he’d be insulted, but exhaustion made all of his limbs so heavy that Cody couldn’t imagine telling her no. Especially not when it meant that he could maybe sleep. He wrapped himself up in the warm hotel comforter and wondered for a moment why they kept the whole suite so damn cold. Maybe it was because they didn’t have to pay for the air conditioning, but he figured it went both ways, right? They could heat the whole room for free too. Cody was just glad that was the last conscious thought he had before the dark heaviness of sleep grabbed him by the shoulders and tugged backward hard enough to send him tumbling head over heels into it. 

He woke with a start. There were arms around him but they weren’t Brandi’s. There was a voice in his ear but it wasn’t Brandi’s. Or Matt’s. Or Nick’s. Or hell, even Kenny’s. 

“You’re so cute, Cody. How did you get so cute after leaving me behind, huh?” Stardust rubbed his cheek against Cody’s ear before place a wet black kiss on his cheek. He tightened his embrace just a little, just in case Cody thought he could wriggle his way out of this. “Did you think you could just leave me back there? What’s Stardust to do in a mirror, Cody?” Cody squeezed his eyes shut as tight as they’d go, so tight he saw spots. Stardust placed another kiss on his cheek. Cody was finding it difficult to breathe. The spots were bright and light and Cody thought that maybe if he reached out he could touch them. Stardust squeezed again. “Ah ah ah aaaaaah~ No no no! Can’t have you slipping away again, Cody! Not when we just got each other back!” 

“Go away!” it was a lot softer, said with a lot less force than Cody wanted it to be. It sounded like a wheeze. But it was there. “Go away! We did everything we needed to. We’re done. Please-- - Just go away.” Stardust nosed at Cody’s ear for a moment, purposefully breathing warm air against the shell of his ear. How could his breath be so warm when the arms encompassing Cody were as cold as ice? “Stop! Leave me alone!” 

“You were just saying thank you, Cody! What happened?” A comically sad frown crossed Stardust’s face and he moved to rest his chin on Cody’s shoulder. “Did what we had together mean nothing? I thought you liked being me!” 

“I-- - We did everything we needed to.” Cody shivered, “Without you I wouldn’t be where I am now, so I guess…” He paused. He shouldn’t have to thank his ghost to get him to leave. Stardust finally relinquished his hold on him and sat up, pouting as he crossed his legs in the sea of blankets. Stardust’s arms folded over his chest and he eyed Cody with those bright red eyes. His face paint was gold this time. Not purple like last time. Or silver like it had been before. Cody sat up slowly. 

“You really-- - You really want to just brush me aside like this, Cody?” The facade seemed to fall away from Stardust as Cody regarded him carefully. He looked… Sad. Defeated. Not in the way that Cody felt like he was going to be given the space he so badly needed. But in the way that Cody could relate to. He pursed his lips. 

“It’s not like that…” 

“Sounds like that, Cody. You want to just forget about me. Forget about everything we did when we were Stardust.” 

“I don’t think it’s possible to forget that shit…”

“But you want to try.” 

Cody frowned at that. Stardust wasn’t wrong. Not really. Actually, that’s what made all of this even more annoying. Because Stardust was right, Cody was wrong. He couldn’t just forget about him because Stardust had taught him a few very valuable lessons. As much as Cody thought about how nice it would be if he didn’t have this to look back on… If he didn’t have this to look back on he wouldn’t be who he was now. Hell, he might still be at The Other Place. He’d still be Cody Rhodes, but he wouldn’t be the American Nightmare. He wouldn’t be doing what he loved. He reached out and took one of Stardust’s gloved wrists and unfolded his arms so he could pull him into a hug. 

“I still don’t like you,” he added, because he didn’t want Stardust to think this was him giving in. He wasn’t. He could never go back. Too much has happened. Too many good things have come from his split with Stardust. 

“I know. I don’t like me either.” Stardust chuckled but he leaned into the hug as best he could from his seated position. Cody leaned back so he could rest his forehead against Stardust’s painted one. 

“We did a lot of shit together. But… Now look where we are, man. Look at us now. You really think we could’a done any of this over there?” Stardust shook his head. Cody smiled a genuine smile for the first time in weeks. And then he pressed a kiss to Stardust’s head, nose wrinkling at the smell of the face paint. “You gotta go-- -” But before Cody could even give the rest of his stipulations for this shaky truce, Stardust was gone and he was alone in his bed, covered in glitter yet again. 

The feeling of peace that came with this particular development told Cody that he probably didn’t have to deal with any more residual haunting phenomenon. His shoulders slumped. Within minutes, Cody was sleeping again without bothering to free himself of the glitter left behind by the ghost of who he used to be. 

\---

Chuckie T. looked at Cody like he’d just been slapped in the face. “Come on! You owe me a favor, remember?!” Cody actually laughed at that, shaking his head. He pointed directly at Chuckie and shook his head again. 

“That favor’s null and void, man. You told Trent?. That means I don’t owe you shit!” It was here that Chuckie T. resembled a fish, mouth gaping until he could supply his lips with words. 

“How the hell did you know?!”

“I can hear everything, man. I know when people are talking, Chuck. I heard you.”

Chuckie’s voice got really low, barely above a whisper, “But you were in another country when I-- -”

“I. Hear. Everything.” Cody tapped his ear to make his point before waving Sexy Chuckie T. off again. Even if he hadn’t heard him tell Trent? Cody would know that he’d told. And he didn’t have time for this anyway. Things were moving in the right direction again. He felt good. His shadow wasn’t heavy.

And sometimes he’d find glitter in his pockets. But it only made him smile a little fond smile that he would never talk about with anyone.


End file.
